Balancing Inbound and Outbound Links - More Link Myths

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Myth #3 - PageRank is like time; you can't lose it, you can only spend it.

This is probably the silliest statement I've heard concerning PageRank.  Let's look at this statement.  First and foremost, the person who came up with this little statement apparently has never "lost" PageRank.  Further, the second part of the statement implies that PageRank is like your savings account.  Let's say you have $100.00 in there.  If you spend $95.00, this means you only have $5.00 left over.  Fortunately, this is really NOT the way that PageRank works.

Phil Craven, author of an article explaining PageRank, says: "When a page votes its PageRank value to other pages, its own PageRank is not reduced by the value that it is voting. The page doing the voting doesn't give away its PageRank and end up with nothing. It isn't a transfer of PageRank. It is simply a vote according to the page's PageRank value. It's like a shareholders meeting where each shareholder votes according to the number of shares held, but the shares themselves aren't given away."

I can certainly relate to the analogy Craven gives.  You can't just assume that PageRank is a tangible element in this case; and by thinking that you can "give away" your PageRank, in essence it becomes somewhat tangible.  In my own analogy, I think of PageRank more along the same lines as knowledge:  you can impart your knowledge to others without actually losing the knowledge yourself.

Myth #4 - If you're linking to someone else's page, you're giving them PageRank that you could be giving to one of your own pages.

Wrong again.  This is wrong in the same way as the previous myth; PageRank is not a savings account, with only so much PageRank to be had for anyone and everyone you are linking to until you just run out.  I would like to point out that there are high ranking sites like CNN, Wired.com and MSNBC that have dozens of links to other sites without giving away their PageRank.

Further, internal PageRank doesn't work this way either.  In fact, too much internal linking without the balance of outbound links to other sites can indeed get you into trouble, not only earning you a lack of search engine positioning, but the loss of PageRank as well.

Myth #5 - Linking to someone else's site with some of the same information as I have is like sending my customers to my competition.

As much as this may be true in the shopping world, it isn't necessarily true of the interworking of the Web.  Sure, you might be rerouting a bit of traffic, but traffic is also being routed to you.  It doesn't make sense that a reciprocal link will hurt one party, but be only helpful to the other.  No one likes sending traffic or customers away, but let's be honest for a second.  No one can be all things to all people.  Your customers have more needs than you can possibly provide for, so they will still end up going elsewhere for something.  At least you can give them your two thumbs up, and that referral may mean more to them in the long run than simply the lack of information from the start.

There is more to having a good position in the search engines that hoarding all of your links.  There are many sites that I see have wonderful keyword-rich content, many thousands of backlinks, yet are so afraid of losing their PageRank that they only link to their own sites or internal pages.  In the case of those webmasters, I'd be more afraid that it would look like an attempt to keep inflated numbers while losing the important purpose of linking in the first place: connecting the web.  So come on, guys: stop being stingy with your links, and try to relax a little.  You're not going to plummet in the SERPs by providing links to someone else.

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